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West Brom manager given one game to save his job

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic has been given one game, which is against Newcastle United to save his job, according to reports.

Various articles claim that he is ‘facing the sack if West Brom fail to get a result against the Magpies after the shocking collapse at home to Crystal Palace’, with Baggies one point off safety.

They have only taken six points from 11 games played this season, leaving them second from bottom in the Premier League table.

The Baggies fell to an embarrassing 5-1 home defeat against Roy Hodgson’s side at the weekend, fallling apart after the controversial sending off of Matheus Pereira at 1-1, and it has raised fresh questions over the Croatian boss’ future.

He now needs a result against Newcastle on Saturday if he is to avoid the sack, according to The Mirror.

However, the game was said to be in serious doubt due to the coronavirus outbreak at Newcastle, which saw their game against Aston Villa postponed and forced training to be cancelled again on Monday.

However the training ground has since reopened, potentially giving players enough time to get prepared to play out the fixture.

It’s not the first time this season that Bilic was on the brink of losing his job at West Brom as last month it was first reported that his future is under consideration months after winning promotion back to the big time.

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic said after the hammering: “It is a big frustration for us, it was a key moment in the game. We conceded a cheap own-goal from the free-kick and we came back, we played good, we equalised, we were on top of the game and that moment was the key moment.

“At least he [the VAR referee Michael Oliver] gave him [the on-field referee Paul Tierney] an option so I can’t have any complaints. It wasn’t a kick but he can’t do that on this level – you can’t do that on any level. He could get away with a yellow card but he gave the option to the referee and VAR.

“He’ll be a big miss because he’s playing good as a whole team, we saw that in the first half. For us to be competitive and have chances in every game, we have to be 11 vs 11, we have to make situations with two against one in our favour.

“When you’re down to ten men, it’s not only tactically, but it’s psychologically that it affected us big time. But I’m not happy how we collapsed after they scored the third one.

“There was a situation just before the second goal that was very interesting for me in our box when I think it was a penalty [after McArthur fouled Gallagher] and it should have been given to us – but it wasn’t.

“So a very good first half, a good performance but 5-1 is a heavy defeat for us.”

He added: “We conceded five goals and it is unacceptable no matter if you are one man down.

“Our reaction was a really disappointing one. It was too easy for them, we didn’t mark.

“OK we were one man down and you can’t stop them getting close to your final third.

“But then you should have enough players to defend.

“Everybody was relying on their team-mate to do the job without man marking.

“It was more up to them how many they were going to score.”

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said: “I thought the performance was good even before the sending off, which does affect the other team’s performance.

“But I thought we were doing well before that and were a little bit unlucky to concede the equaliser but even against ten men, you’ve still got to play your football and do the right things. I think we certainly did that throughout the game today and were good value for our victory.

“The most important thing is that it’s great for him [Benteke’s two goals]. You have faith in your players anyway and if you work with them the way we do, we work very hard not to lose faith in our players.

“We see them in training and how hard they work and if it’s not working for them on the field at times, we feel sympathy for them. We’re not angry with them or upset, we’re empathic but it’s nice for him that he got his chance today that he waited patiently for. He’s rewarded me, who put him in the team, with two very good goals.

“For the first time since I joined the club, I’ve found myself having sleepless nights and headaches over team selection because there are so many good players I’m being forced to leave out and it’s not easy. You never want to compare, but you don’t have a good reason necessarily for not playing them.

“I’m going to have to ask the players to accept that because if we’re going to do well this season, we’re going to need all these players. Between now and Christmas, we have a very difficult programme with some very good teams to play so it’s nice to have some points on the board.”

Player ratings

West Brom: Johnstone (6), Ajayi (6), Ivanovic (6), Bartley (5), Furlong (6), Gallagher (6), Sawyers (5), Phillips (6), Pereira (5), Grant (4), Diangana (5).

Subs used: Krovinovic (5), Robinson (5), O’Shea (n/a).

Crystal Palace: Guaita (6), Clyne (7), Kouyate (7), Cahill (7), Van Aanholt (7), Milivojevic (7), McArthur (7), Zaha (9), Schlupp (8), Eze (8), Benteke (8).

Subs used: Riedewald (5), Ayew (5), Batshuayi (5).

Man of the match: Wilfried Zaha.

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